The Third Book The 3rd Chapter - Captain WestJet

Captain WestJet

April 29/2018

Change for improvement or is it reactionary change? Have you ever experienced a rare one-off event and due to that one event, new changes are in place that creates a reality that is different?

I truly believe in change in the value of change to work on improvements daily — whether it is personal development or in our work-life. Before you make a change, ask yourself, if there is value on this change? Will the change end up providing more value to you or your organization over the long-term.

Recently I had the privilege of sharing some time with a WestJet Captain. In that time I asked her all kinds of questions on being a captain of a large jetliner. Questions I asked were from what “V1” means and how to determine when to de-ice a plane and many more topics. After the hour conversation, I was able to learn much about the job of aviation, and I was grateful for her sharing of her job.

One thing discussed is how the magic of the captain experience has disappeared, and now cockpit tours are gone to an entire generation of kids. She shared that a big reason she became a pilot was access to the cockpit, while she was traveling as a young child.

As our society level of security has changed over the last 25 years, I understand the intent of why the cockpit experience is now gone. This change is reactionary change and a logical way to ensure folks don’t bring harm to others by gaining access to the cockpit area. This process of change should ensure that people will not harm again.

The underlying issues are our young people not having that opportunity to explore is a question now. With all, we do in our life it is important to do a risk-reward exercise before initiating change. Determine with this change what will be the net value increase to you and your organization. Quick decisions will usually lead to the change you feel you need at the time but what are the long-term impacts of your change? With your immediate change are you closing the doors that will impact you on whether you will achieve what you were meant to achieve? Are you making choices that are reaction based? On the surface, of course, it makes sense to ensure our safety is protected but how do you measure the cost of the loss of magic to kids? Does this loss of magic translate in the loss of something even bigger that does not start due to the loss of the value of imagination?

Sometimes the effect of those choices will be the elimination of your magic. That magic or that special feeling of being alive that will help you grow. Your magic is the passion mixture that allows you to achieve what you were set out here to do in this lifetime. When you are ready to grow, are you changing with your purpose in mind or changing for change sake? Or are you changing because of a one-off event has impacted you?

Perhaps you will need to reopen your cockpit door to allow positive energy to build and have your magic return. With your positive selection of an inner circle of friends, you will experience this energy to grow, and this energy is unlimited in its ability to grow. 

The Third Book The 2nd Chapter - Reflection and Learning

April 21/2018

It has been a while since I have shared with you all. Have you ever crossed into an abyss of life where your focus is no lighting your next steps? While in that abyss you seemed to be filled with confusion and lack of progress on your life goals?

My abyss happened to me in mid-February, and it was during this time I felt a sense of frustration and a lack of visibility in my world when that would become a reality. These moments are very difficult for me to come back from and it is so easy for me to allow a low energy existence become my normal.

What I realized was my first step in knowing where my energy was at, and no one or thing could bring me out of that abyss except for me and the hard work required of me. At that time, one thought at a time to one moment at a time I started to build my momentum. Now I am at a point where I would like to share three personal, professional milestone goals.

The first goal is a short-term goal, as you might know living in western Canada in the winter time is very cold and dark. As time has passed for me, I found myself in a position where I don’t like winter, to the point that it makes me depressed and affects my mood. As I thought about this reality of every winter, I asked myself what should I do to change this negative experience. One option was to do nothing and dread each day closer to winter. Or think of a strategy that aligns up to my professional goals. As my business is going to my customers, I thought of any areas I already goto that do not have snow, and that have people that would value what I can offer. My thoughts lead me to the specific goal of having my first client in the Phoenix area by November of this year. I have a mindset of even if I don’t achieve the goal, at least I tried to do something instead of waiting for the darkness of winter, that I know will come.

My second goal is a medium range goal, now that I know what makes my business model different than the 1000’s of other organizational development consultants, is the legacy of the completed work within the organization. My experience is that when the consultant’s come into work with an organization that once they have left, so does the impact of long-lasting change. My goal is that the started work remains in place and even expands and becomes greater than when I was there. You do this by identifying someone already in place within the organization that is not using their superpowers. If you think for a moment, I bet you can think of at least one person, or perhaps you are the person in your organization that can add more value. Usually, there is not just one barrier to why this talent is not getting optimized, but a combination of barriers that have a root cause of culture reality. With this determining factor, I will need more people to complete the work that is requested to do this efficiently. I will then bring in my old team and this time frame will be three to five years from now.

Now my identified long-term goal, which is ten to fifteen years out. After years of growing and expanding a servant type leadership platform, with a combination of several more books. Then it will be time for me to teach on a large scale what I have learned and share with others. It will take a form of organic speeches in an environment where the speech becomes specifically for the people that are there. I could speak all day long about my experience but how does that relate to you? What value are you taking away from your time spent there? How are you going to own and integrate the words and my experience?

By one conversation at a time, it is possible to make your difference. With the consistency of the purpose of your every moment, you can move the needle on making your environment a better place for you.